EU Politicians Call for Banning of Turkish Politicians

No to the Stirring Up of Chauvinist Hatred against Turkey by European Bourgeois Politicians! Defend Migrants against Imperialist Racism! No Support for Erdoğan’s Constitutional Reforms!

Statement of the Austrian and German Sections of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, 7 March 2017, www.thecommunists.net

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern has called for a European Union-wide ban on campaign appearances by Turkish politicians. German and Dutch politicians have raised similar calls to ban politicians from Turkey’s governing AKP party from holding rallies of Turkish migrants in their respective countries. In two German cities, pro-Erdoğan rallies have already been cancelled by local German authorities. These are just the latest outbursts of chauvinist agitation by leading EU politicians – be they right-wing populists, conservatives or social democrats (including the German Linkspartei which calls for a tourist boycott of Turkey) – against Turkey and Turkish migrants.

The Austrian and German sections of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) denounce this policy as reactionary and imperialist chauvinism! It is an anti-democratic policy to forbid rallies of the AKP – the strongest party among Turkish migrants – and to forbid Turkish politicians from participating in such rallies. Furthermore, it is characteristic of the EU’s anti-migrant chauvinism that, while such calls are made for banning Turkish parties from holding rallies among Turkish migrants in European countries, right-wing racists like Strache, the AfD, France’s Le Pen, etc., are free to hold and speak at rallies – not only in their native countries but in any other EU country as well. This demonstrates clearly that right-wing racists who campaign for the hegemony of the native “white race” are welcome in the EU to agitate as they like, while Turkish politicians who have a strong following among Turkish migrants are not.

Contrary to what is hypocritically claimed, the motivation for the EU’s campaign against Turkey and its government is not their concern for democracy and human rights. Rather it is intended to pressure the Erdoğan regime into complying even more than it has until now with the EU’s demands to keep refugees from entering Europe. Furthermore, the EU is angered that the Turkish government feels itself free to act too independently in its foreign policy, and is willing to collaborate not only with the US and EU but also with Russian imperialism. In short, the EU denounces the Turkish government not for its undemocratic character, but because it is not acting sufficiently as a loyal regional guardian for the imperialist EU. Look how courteous the EU deals with the military dictatorship in Egypt – a regime which is hundred times more authoritarian than Erdoğan’s! Last but not least, the campaign against Turkey is part of the European ruling class’s Islamophobic racist campaign which has been going on for years with the goal of poisoning the consciousness of the white working class, to rally the confused white middle class, and to ideologically justify the oppression of Muslim migrants – among whom the Turks constitute the biggest sector in central Europe.

Of course, the RCIT’s defense of Turkish politicians and the right of pro-AKP migrant organizations to hold rallies in the EU must not be confused with our having any political sympathy with them. Quite the contrary, we sharply denounce the Erdoğan government as a Bonapartist regime which increasingly limits democratic rights in Turkey and which brutally oppresses the Kurdish minority. Similarly, the RCIT denounces the regime in Ankara for its cooperation with the EU in helping it to keep refugees out of the EU. We strongly oppose Erdoğan’s constitutional reforms – without giving any support for the AKP’s reactionary opponents like the Kemalist CHP or the CIA-supported Gülen network. The RCIT entirely support the Kurdish people’s right for national self-determination – including the right to constitute their own state.

To read the RCIT’s analysis of the imperialist EU’s policy, click here: